Patrick George

Thanks largely to their Grade A dickery during World War II, Japan is not terribly popular in China, and Japanese automakers there continually feel that sting. It's not a sentiment only expressed by the older generation like you might expect — even the kids think it's cool to hate on Japan.

China and Japan have never really been the best of friends, yet they typically try to get along so…
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Rocket News 24 brings us a story from the Japanese-language version of a Xinhua report about a Chinese teenager who ran away from home in order to protest her parents' plans to purchase a Honda.

The 14-year-old girl — whose name and hometown are not released — was reportedly angry (and reported by the Chinese media, so grain of salt) that her parents weren't supporting the Chinese economy by buying a Japanese car. In the end, they caved, and she came back.

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Xinhua reported that the girl told her parents that if her friends found out that they had purchased a Japanese car, she would be made fun of. She also insisted that if they were going to buy a car, they might as well buy a Chinese car to support the local economy.

According to the teenager, buying the Japanese car would just be “helping the enemy with money from our own pockets.” To show just how strongly she felt about it, the teenager left her parents’ house and stayed with friends, refusing to return until they gave up on getting the car.

After three days, her parents agreed not to make the purchase, and she finally returned home.

Basically, teenage Chinese girls have the same sort of attitude towards car-buying as your angry grandfather who refuses to buy anything not made in America.

I guess she's ignoring the fact that if the car was bought in China, there's a very good chance it was also made in China, so her family still could have supported local production. But hey, it's more fun to hate on cars for their nationalities, right? That's why I'd never be caught dead in a DAF.